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Election Data Standards Requirements: Getting on with what we’ve got

Election Data Standards Requirements: Getting on with what we’ve got. John L. McCarthy, volunteer Verified Voting Foundation. Common Elections Data Format Workshop National Institute for Standards and Technology Gaithersburg, Maryland 29-30 October, 2009.

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Election Data Standards Requirements: Getting on with what we’ve got

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  1. Election Data Standards Requirements:Getting on with what we’ve got John L. McCarthy, volunteer Verified Voting Foundation Common Elections Data Format Workshop National Institute for Standards and Technology Gaithersburg, Maryland 29-30 October, 2009

  2. Overview & Review Background for election data standards • Who needs & uses election data? (clients) • What kinds of election data are required? • When are election data needed for what purposes? • What objectives would data standards help meet? • How are these needs currently being met? • in the United States? • In other countries? • What characterizes good data format standards? • Why can’t we simply use EML (& extend as necessary)? • OASIS Election Markup Language (dialect of W3C XML) John L. McCarthy Election Data Standards Requirements – October 2009 NIST Workshop

  3. Who needs & uses election data (& how)?Potential clients for election data standards • Voting systems vendors and system developers • component communications, system integration, testing, reporting • Election officials – local, state, and national (EAC, …) • ballot definition, testing, reporting, aggregation, auditing • Election management consultants & contractors • systems integration, contract work for election officials • News media (TV, radio, print, web) • reporting results, predicting outcomes & analyzing trends • Candidates, political parties & organizations • deciding whether to concede, claim victory or dispute results • Citizens, citizen organizations & academic researchers • pre and post election auditing, analyzing detailed results John L. McCarthy Election Data Standards Requirements – October 2009 NIST Workshop

  4. What kinds of election data are required? • Election districts & district boundaries • Voter registration information & eligible voter lists • Candidate nominations & approved candidate lists • Referendum options and approved options lists • Ballot definition information (for each jurisdiction) • Election vote records, counts, results, and statistics • Cast Vote Records (CVR) for each individual ballot • including outcomes for each voting opportunity (choice) • e.g., vote recorded, blank, too many choices, unrecognized • Logs from each individual piece of voting equipment • Audit information pertinent to all the above categories John L. McCarthy Election Data Standards Requirements – October 2009 NIST Workshop

  5. What detailed components are needed for vote tabulation audits? • GEOGRAPHIC IDENTIFIERS • State, County • Sub-county jurisdiction(s), if any (e.g., city, township) • Precinct • Other Aggregation Unit Identifiers (e.g., state assembly district, water district) • Voting Method (early, absentee, in-precinct, provisional, • Ballot Type and/or party (for primary elections) • FOR EACH CONTEST • Contest (e.g., Governor, State Assembly, City Council, Water Board) • Choice (candidate or position Y/N) Summary records typically contain counts for each choice and some systems’ cast vote records for individual ballots may show how each choice was counted -- vote, blank, too many choices (overvote), or unrecognized mark. SoS’s & others also need standards for various types of election audit reports John L. McCarthy Election Data Standards Requirements – October 2009 NIST Workshop

  6. When are election data needed? • Preceding an election • system development & testing • logic and accuracy testing & test results • jurisdiction boundaries, ballot types, voting places • ballot design and contents (candidates, ballot measures, etc.) • registered & eligible voters • During an election • problem reports • individuals who have voted • Election night • detailed vote counts by polling place, type (in-person, absentee), candidate, ballot measure choices, overvotes, undervotes • Individual Cast Vote Records (CVR) for each ballot • Before certification of final results • audit results, including resolution of any discrepancies found John L. McCarthy Election Data Standards Requirements – October 2009 NIST Workshop

  7. Objectives that election data standards can help us achieve • Timely & Transparent Reporting • aggregation within local jurisdictions & from local to state • to media, interested organizations & the general public • to help support pre and post-election auditing • Lower costs & improved Accuracy • Improve transparency & testing of ballot definition • connect registration, pollbooks, and reporting • facilitate transition to electronic record-keeping • Interoperability • between components from a single vendor • among different components from different vendors • Auditability • detailed data available immediately following each election • machine-readable reports broken down in arbitrary ways John L. McCarthy Election Data Standards Requirements – October 2009 NIST Workshop

  8. How are these needs currently being met? • In the United States… • very little standardization • data exchange via poorly documented proprietary formats • election management systems produce human readable reports • some exceptions • CA SoS media feed 2008, 2009 • IL translation programs for EAC data collection grant program • In other countries • Council of Europe recommends EML for interoperability (2004) • Australian Electoral Commission EML Media Feed (since 2007) • UK e-voting pilots and CORE registration project use EML • Belgium uses EML for local elections in Flanders (2006-7) • Others? John L. McCarthy Election Data Standards Requirements – October 2009 NIST Workshop

  9. What kinds of data and metadata do current commercial vote tabulation systems provide? Human Readable Reports e.g., Hart-Intercivic (Crystal Reports) John L. McCarthy Election Data Standards Requirements – October 2009 NIST Workshop

  10. What would characterize good election data format standards? • Machine-readable, structured components • separate elements for each distinct type of information • (e.g., state, county, precinct, type, contest, candidate, undervotes) • easy to render into different formats • modular structures/schemas for different kinds of data • (e.g., ballot definition, geography, tabulation results, …) • Well-defined and documented data elements & structures • preferably defined by & data verifiable via formal schema • Quasi-human-readable • data volume does not require serious compression (e.g., ASN.1) • easy to render into different human-readable & machine formats • Compatible with tools for translation, rendering & storage • e.g., XML: style sheets, schema, databases; web services; XSLT • Developed through standards consensus process • input and discussion from all stake-holders, trial use, etc. John L. McCarthy Election Data Standards Requirements – October 2009 NIST Workshop

  11. Doesn’t EML (Election Markup Language) meet most if not all of these requirements? • Dialect of XML (current lingua franca for data exchange) • Developed by OASIS Technical Committee (since 2001) • participation by vendors and election experts • currently completing work on version 6.0 (still time for feedback!) • OASIS will propose EML 6.0 as ISO standard early in 2010 • Flexible, extensible, modular framework • version 6.0 includes new elements & features to support US voting • V 6.0 meets most known election requirements • Already used by a number of organizations & jurisdictions • California & Australia media feeds, etc. • ES&S, Hart-Intercivic (EDX XML variant), EDS, IBM, more in Europe • For more info, see http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/ tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=election#expository John L. McCarthy Election Data Standards Requirements – October 2009 NIST Workshop

  12. What are primary objections, barriers, and counter-arguments to use of EML? • Too new ? • development of multiple versions since 2001 • used successfully in growing number of jurisdictions • Competing approaches & standards ? • IEEE Voting Systems Electronic Data Interchange Project 1622 • temporarily deactivated because TC "failed to achieve balance" • Comma-delimited spreadsheet format • No schema to enforce data input requirements • Require multiple tables to supported nested repeating groups • Would have to develop table and column definitions, etc. • Too complex and/or missing features ? • can ignore modules that are not applicable • Easy to extend and add new features using XML (e.g. audit reports) • Implementation costs ? • 3 major vendors already use EML or XML in significant ways • Lots of tools to support XML development and use John L. McCarthy Election Data Standards Requirements – October 2009 NIST Workshop

  13. The need is urgent…Now is the time to act • Election auditing requires a single standard set of formats • statement from last week’s meeting on election auditing at ASA • States are beginning to implement electronic reporting • California 6 county experiment & plans to expand to statewide • Illinois plans statewide integrated voting & elections system • Need for national archive of election data • for policy makers, legislators, academic researchers • current election day survey data is inadequate • not timely, detailed data not easily available in standard formats • EAC data collection grant project results can provide insights • If EML is deficient, we can propose revisions for v6 • but should do so in the next couple of months John L. McCarthy Election Data Standards Requirements – October 2009 NIST Workshop

  14. Opportunities for participation • Election Data Standards Email list (& google sites wiki) • electiondatastandards@verifiedvoting.org • Try new election data software & help improve it • Auditing software from CO (McBurnett), UC Berkeley (Stark), … • VTS translation software from IL? • EML & enhancements for version 6 • OASIS Elections & Voter Services Technical Committee • Joe Hall, David Webber, others • www.oasis-open.org/committees/election/ • NIST, TGDC, VVSG • Urge EAC and/or NIST to become active members of OASIS TC • create documentation & guidelines to facilitate adoption John L. McCarthy Election Data Standards Requirements – October 2009 NIST Workshop

  15. Thanks to …. • Verified Voting Foundation & President Pam Smith • Election Data Standards and Auditing Lists • American Statistical Association & Steve Pierson • David Webber, OVS/OASIS • John Sebes, Open Source Digital Voting Foundation • Neal McBurnett, Boulder, Colorado • Scott Hilkert & Catalyst Consulting associates, Chicago • participants in last week’s election auditing meeting John L. McCarthy Election Data Standards Requirements – October 2009 NIST Workshop

  16. Example XML data fragment <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> - <election type="GE" name="General Election" date="11/4/2008"> - <state id="IL" name="Illinois"> - <jurisdiction id="2402" name="Alexander County" federalId="1700300000"> - <contest id="4" name="12TH CONGRESS" polling="3167" absentee="0" early="487" grace="0" provisional="0" total="3654">   <specialCount type="blankVotes" polling="0" absentee="0" early="0" grace="0" provisional="0" total="0" /> - <specialCount type="underVotes" polling="283" absentee="0" early="88" grace="0" provisional="0" total="371">   <precinct name="CAIRO 1" polling="57" absentee="0" early="14" grace="0" provisional="0" total="71" />   <precinct name="CAIRO 2" polling="37" absentee="0" early="21" grace="0" provisional="0" total="58" />   <precinct name="CAIRO 3" polling="16" absentee="0" early="14" grace="0" provisional="0" total="30" />   <precinct name="CAIRO 4" polling="22" absentee="0" early="14" grace="0" provisional="0" total="36" />   <precinct name="CAIRO 5" polling="19" absentee="0" early="9" grace="0" provisional="0" total="28" />   <precinct name="CACHE" polling="9" absentee="0" early="5" grace="0" provisional="0" total="14" />   <precinct name="SANDUSKY" polling="7" absentee="0" early="2" grace="0" provisional="0" total="9" />   <precinct name="TAMMS" polling="39" absentee="0" early="1" grace="0" provisional="0" total="40" />   <precinct name="MCCLURE" polling="29" absentee="0" early="2" grace="0" provisional="0" total="31" />   <precinct name="THEBES" polling="19" absentee="0" early="1" grace="0" provisional="0" total="20" />   <precinct name="OLIVE BRANCH" polling="29" absentee="0" early="5" grace="0" provisional="0" total="34" />   </specialCount> - <specialCount type="overVotes" polling="5" absentee="0" early="0" grace="0" provisional="0" total="5">   <precinct name="CAIRO 1" polling="0" absentee="0" early="0" grace="0" provisional="0" total="0" />   <precinct name="CAIRO 2" polling="0" absentee="0" early="0" grace="0" provisional="0" total="0" />   <precinct name="CAIRO 3" polling="0" absentee="0" early="0" grace="0" provisional="0" total="0" />   <precinct name="CAIRO 4" polling="0" absentee="0" early="0" grace="0" provisional="0" total="0" />   <precinct name="CAIRO 5" polling="0" absentee="0" early="0" grace="0" provisional="0" total="0" />   <precinct name="CACHE" polling="0" absentee="0" early="0" grace="0" provisional="0" total="0" />   <precinct name="SANDUSKY" polling="0" absentee="0" early="0" grace="0" provisional="0" total="0" />   <precinct name="TAMMS" polling="0" absentee="0" early="0" grace="0" provisional="0" total="0" />   <precinct name="MCCLURE" polling="3" absentee="0" early="0" grace="0" provisional="0" total="3" />   <precinct name="THEBES" polling="0" absentee="0" early="0" grace="0" provisional="0" total="0" />   <precinct name="OLIVE BRANCH" polling="2" absentee="0" early="0" grace="0" provisional="0" total="2" />   </specialCount> - <choice id="18" name="JERRY F. COSTELLO" party="DEM" polling="2330" absentee="0" early="411" grace="0" provisional="0" total="2741">   <precinct name="CAIRO 1" polling="162" absentee="0" early="55" grace="0" provisional="0" total="217" />   <precinct name="CAIRO 2" polling="197" absentee="0" early="63" grace="0" provisional="0" total="260" />   <precinct name="CAIRO 3" polling="101" absentee="0" early="26" grace="0" provisional="0" total="127" />   <precinct name="CAIRO 4" polling="189" absentee="0" early="52" grace="0" provisional="0" total="241" />   <precinct name="CAIRO 5" polling="207" absentee="0" early="49" grace="0" provisional="0" total="256" />   <precinct name="CACHE" polling="137" absentee="0" early="25" grace="0" provisional="0" total="162" />   <precinct name="SANDUSKY" polling="120" absentee="0" early="18" grace="0" provisional="0" total="138" />   <precinct name="TAMMS" polling="392" absentee="0" early="26" grace="0" provisional="0" total="418" />   <precinct name="MCCLURE" polling="282" absentee="0" early="31" grace="0" provisional="0" total="313" />   <precinct name="THEBES" polling="218" absentee="0" early="37" grace="0" provisional="0" total="255" />   <precinct name="OLIVE BRANCH" polling="325" absentee="0" early="29" grace="0" provisional="0" total="354" />   </choice> John L. McCarthy Election Data Standards Requirements – October 2009 NIST Workshop

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